Environmental news feed

- A report by U.K. investigative NGO Earthsight links supply chains of fashion giants H&M and Zara to large-scale illegal deforestation, land-grabbing, violence and corruption in Brazil.- The country’s Cerrado region, home to a third of Brazil’s species, has already lost half of its vegetation to large-scale agriculture and is under increasing pressure from a booming cotton industry.- The two major producers linked to illicit activities, SLC Agrícola and Grupo Horita, deny the accusations, as does Abrapa, Brazil’s producer association, which also oversees cotton certification implementation in the country.- Earthsight found that most of the tainted cotton it tracked had the Better Cotton label, raising the alarm over the practices and traceability of the certification system.

- The government of Panama continues to delay the process of relocating almost 1,300 Indigenous Guna inhabitants from an island experiencing rising sea levels due to climate change.- The lack of space on the tiny Caribbean island of Gardi Sugdub means there’s no room to relocate, and a new site on the mainland for the community has been in the works since 2019.- But plans for the relocation have been repeatedly delayed due to administrative issues, previous COVID-19 restrictions and poor budgeting, leaving residents skeptical that government promises will be upheld.- Members of this fishing community have also expressed concern about the relocation site, which is a 30-minute walk from the coast, and about the design of the new homes, for which the government didn’t seek Guna input.

- In recent years, state and corporate actors have been hesitant to adopt measures to reach climate and biodiversity goals, in some cases watering down regulatory frameworks or pulling out of voluntary commitments.- Industry experts, the private sector and environmental organizations say this is not surprising, but for different reasons: Some argue the measures are too difficult to meet, while others say parties are putting profits before sustainability.- The EU has struggled to pass its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), a new legislative framework that aims to enhance the protection of the environment and human rights. Meanwhile, major banks and financial institutions are pulling away from various regulatory frameworks, such as Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) and the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi).- Critics warn that a lack of such regulations could deprive Indigenous peoples of important protections to safeguard and guarantee their rights.

- The history of extractivism in the Pan Amazon shows that environmental damage has been commonplace, only now there are new demands from the parent companies that influence all service providers involved.- In this section, Killeen explains that any hydrocarbon project (whether oil or gas) entails a high risk of social conflict with the communities living next to exploration and exploitation areas.- The governments of countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and Brazil must ensure that there is real environmental responsibility for the oil spills that are damaging ecosystems and the livelihoods of communities.

- In March, the Federation of Kukama Indigenous Women in the Parinari district of Loreto won a lawsuit against the oil company Petroperú and the Peruvian government, protecting the Marañon River from oil pollution.- Since the 1970s, the exploration of oil reserves in the Peruvian Amazon has resulted in hundreds of oil leaks and spills, compromising the health of Indigenous communities.- While the defendants have already appealed the decision, a favorable ruling in higher courts could force oil and gas companies to answer for decades of pollution in the Peruvian Amazon.

- Several days of extreme rainfall beginning March 7 triggered fatal flash flooding across Indonesia’s West Sumatra province, resulting in at least 30 deaths and devastating villages on the fringe of Kerinci Seblat National Park.- Deforestation upstream of the affected areas has exacerbated the risk of landslides and flash floods, according to officials.- The Indonesian Forum for the Environment, a national civil society organization, called for government action to address illegal logging and land management practices to prevent future disasters.

- The South Korean auto company Hyundai has ended its 2022 agreement for procuring aluminum for its electric vehicles from Adaro Minerals, which plans to build 2.2 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants to power its aluminum smelter.- The decision follows campaigns coordinated by Kpop4Planet, a climate movement led by K-pop fans who protested Hyundai’s business with Adaro.- Climate group Market Forces has estimated Adaro’s coal plants would emit 5.2 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year, and activists say Hyundai would be pushed further from reaching its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045.- The campaign collected more than 11,000 petition signatures from K-pop fans in 68 countries.

- In 2023, Cambodia lost forest cover the size of the city of Los Angeles, or 121,000 hectares (300,000 acres), according to new data published by the University of Maryland.- The majority of this loss occurred inside protected areas, with the beleaguered Prey Lang Wildlife Sanctuary recording the highest rate of forest loss in what was one of its worst years on record.- A leading conservation activist says illegal logging inside protected areas is driven in part by demand for luxury timber exports, “but the authorities don’t seem to care about protecting these forests.”- Despite the worrying trend highlighted by the data, the Cambodian government has set an ambitious target of increasing the country’s forest cover to 60% by 2050.

- Journalist Dahr Jamail joins the Mongabay Newscast to discuss the history and present context of resource wars, which he says are putting pressure on the planet’s ecological limits.- Noted for his work as an unembedded journalist during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Jamail says resource-based motives are behind many if not most conflicts today.- Scientists have warned governments this risks wasting time and money that could otherwise be spent on addressing the looming threats of climate change.- One estimate puts the total cost of all post-9/11 wars at $8 trillion to the U.S. alone, and the death toll at between 4.5 million and 4.7 million people.

- Sargassum, a type of brown macroalgae, has been inundating beaches across the Caribbean since 2011. It comes from the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean.- The seaweed has harmed Caribbean economies and human health, making it a national emergency in some island-nations.- Over the past decade, entrepreneurs and scientists have found ways to turn sargassum into nutrient-rich biofertilizers, biostimulants and other organic products to boost agricultural yields while cutting back on chemicals.- But there are hurdles to scaling the industry, including sargassum’s inconsistent arrival, heavy metal content and fast decomposition rates.

- Measures throughout 2023 to curb the illegal gold trade in Brazil led to a 20% drop in the country’s exports of the precious metal.- In Itaituba, the hub of the Amazon illegal gold trade, taxes from gold sales fell by more than 90% in just the first quarter of this year.- Experts attribute this drop to police raids on illegal mining operations and on requirements for sellers to issue electronic invoices.- But they warn the illegal gold still persists, shifting to unofficial channels to evade the eye of regulators.

- Scientists say that coral reefs are currently undergoing a global bleaching event, with more than 54% of the world’s coral reef areas in the territorial waters of over 50 countries experiencing heat stress. According to one scientist, the percentage of areas dealing with bleaching-level heat stress “has been increasing by roughly 1% per week.”- To assess the current bleaching event, scientists drew on satellite-derived sea surface temperature data and in-water measurements.- Experts say the current El Niño, a phase in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) climate pattern, in combination with rising global sea temperatures, is responsible for the extensive coral bleaching.- Mongabay interviewed scientists most familiar with coral reef bleaching data, and experts attending the 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens, taking place from April 15-17.

- According to a new study, 91.6% of terrestrial mammal communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060, with 87% of them being deprived of their habitats if the temperature in the region increases by at least 2°C.- Small mammals will suffer the strongest impact, and some species may disappear from the biome, such as the giant anteater and the giant armadillo.- In addition to more drought and rising temperatures, deforestation caused by wind farms also threatens some species, such as the jaguar.- In a previous study, the same researchers had warned that 99% of plant communities in the Caatinga will lose species by 2060.

- A lithium plant is using untested equipment and potentially mismanaging its use of freshwater, raising concerns for residents about whether the Bolivian government can responsibly manage the rapid growth of the industry.- Activists are concerned about what they found during a recent inspection of lithium facilities in the Salar de Uyuni, a salt flat with an estimated 21 million tons of lithium.- They called for increased transparency about what lithium facilities are able to produce and how much water and electricity they’re using.

- Indigenous conservationist Angelo Villagomez will speak at the Our Ocean conference, one of the largest and highest profile conferences of its kind, this week in Athens, Greece.- He plans to say that ocean conservation has lost momentum toward protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 and that a lot more needs to be done to address the human dimensions of conservation, including guaranteeing access rights, equity, and justice.- “At this rate, raising the area of global ocean protection from 8% to 30% will take an additional 880 years,” he argues in a new op-ed.- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

- The bay cat, named for its brownish-red coat, is arguably the most elusive of all the world’s wildcats. And among the most endangered.- The bay cat is the only feline endemic to Borneo. Researchers — some of whom have never seen the cat in the wild — say it is potentially threatened by habitat loss and killings by locals, with accidental snaring another possible major cause of loss.- But the biggest threat may be ignorance. In order to better protect this species, researchers urgently need to figure out: Why is it so rare? And why is it vanishing?- Jim Sanderson, the world’s leading expert on wildcats, suggests research on the bay cat should focus on why it’s so uncommon, what is causing its decline, and how to reduce those threats. Then conservationists can make a viable plan to protect it.

- In 2020, Hurricane Iota destroyed most of the housing and infrastructure on the Island of Providencia, in Colombia’s Caribbean archipelago of San Andres.- Although the government sent aid and rebuilt homes, communities complained they were left out of the consultation process and that the reconstruction had been poorly done, without addressing the island’s increased vulnerability to climate change.- Locals sued the government, obtaining a reopening of consultations, which the new left-wing government has agreed must reach a solution that accords with the islanders’ traditional customs.- More than 700 islands in the Caribbean could be increasingly exposed to more extreme weather, as climate change threatens to make events such as hurricanes more destructive.

- In February 2024, Papua New Guinea’s parliament passed the Protected Areas Bill, first introduced two decades ago, into an act, which aims to establish a national system of protected areas to achieve the conservation target of protecting 30% of PNG’s territory by 2030.- The act lays out a legal framework for working with customary landowners in the country to earmark protected areas, establishes regulations to manage these areas and provides provisions for alternative livelihoods to forest-dependent communities.- The act also mandates the establishment of a long-term Biodiversity and Climate Task Fund, which communities can access to implement their management plans and conservation objectives.- While conservationists say the act is a good step toward protecting biodiversity, they raise concerns about its implementation and whether the promised benefits of protected areas will reach landowning communities.

- The European Union, UK and US have passed, or are in the process of passing, legislation which places a duty on companies to prove that products they import do not come from recently deforested land.- Businesses and governments are ramping up efforts to address emissions and deforestation in their supply chains, but the scale at which these initiatives are being implemented limits their effectiveness in tackling deforestation.- Investments by companies and governments in farm-level traceability must be backed up by landscape approaches that address the systemic drivers of deforestation, climate change and biodiversity loss, a new op-ed argues.- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily Mongabay.

- Bonobos have a reputation of being the hippies of the ape world, due to their propensity to “make love, not war.”- But a new study reveals that bonobos, found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, may not be as peaceful as once thought.- Researchers discovered aggressive acts between bonobos from the same group exceeded those recorded among chimpanzees, and that aggressive male bonobos were more successful in mating.- The study provides a more nuanced analysis of these endangered apes, but also highlights the need to protect them from hunting and habitat loss.